Southeast Polk school board candidates address suicide

The suicide of 16-year-old A.J. Betts in late July was the fifth in five years involving a Southeast Polk student. The previous four suicides all occurred in 2008.

With the unusually high number of suicides, previous SEP school board members have had to make difficult decisions about how to address the sensitive issue and prevent more instances in the future.

After next week’s school board election, the responsibility of those decisions could rest on the shoulders of three new board members. Seven candidates — two of them incumbents — are running for three open seats (meet the candidates here).

Many of those candidates have mentioned two other topics that they say are closely related to suicide: Mental health and bullying.